The present invention relates to the field of communications in general and more particularly to the evaluation of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) object identifiers in a Management Information Base (MIB) file.
Network Address Translation (NAT) is a widely used technology for allowing traffic to flow between two discrete Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks without address conflicts. The traditional NAT function translates the source and/or destination IP addresses in the header portion of IP packets as they cross the NAT threshold, so that data packets originating in one network are mapped into unique addresses as they cross into the other network. This basic technology is suitable for some types of network traffic, but is not sufficient for the needs of network management platforms, which often use additional address information contained within the data portion of IP packets for discovery and topology functions.
The Tivoli Comprehensive Network Address Translator (CNAT) has the capability of modifying the actual payloads of specific network management messages, enabling network management across networks that have conflicting or out-of-range IP addresses. Tivoli CNAT monitors data packets coming through the machine and enables management of conflicting IP address ranges by mapping conflicting addresses into available addresses within the service provider's network. For all data packets routed through the system, CNAT checks the source and destination IP addresses and translates any conflicting addresses to ensure that no conflicts will occur in the destination network.
In addition, Tivoli CNAT also performs translation on Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) and SNMP data packets. All values associated with IP addresses are typically translated within the data packets before they are forwarded on to their destination. The translation of IP addresses in SNMP data packets typically requires specific identification of each instance of the IP addresses. These IP addresses each typically have a unique SNMP Object Identifier located within a Management Information Base (MIB) which is used to identify each IP address. Accurate identification of all translatable instances of IP addresses within a MIB may be useful in supporting the Tivoli CNAT product or other such address translator mechanisms. Furthermore, manual scanning of SNMP MIB files to produce the set of SNMP Object Identifiers that represent all applicable IP address occurrences may be a very cumbersome and error prone task.